Change For The Better
by BunnyGirl15
Summary: After one of the most horrible nights in Serena's life and a fight with her friends, she leaves without telling them. Years later she returns, but she's not the same person as she was! Please review! 1st chapter redone!


_AN: Hiya! I knowit has been an awfully ong time since I have started this story, but I am back now! At first I was in the middle of doing my exams and then I just didn't have any insperation at all. But hopefully all that has changed now and I will be able to get back to writing! I have re-written this chapter and now I think that it is better then before. Please review it at the end and tel me what you think of it! I hope it's okay :) I appreciate all the feedback I get!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of these charcters, I'm just using thm for my own selfish reasons!_

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**Change for the Better**

_Chapter One_

Serena ran down the street clutching her ripped shirt to her chest. She was still in shock and she was shaking violently. Tears were spilling out of her eyes and running freely down her cheeks. How could this have happened to her?

She ran to the only place she thought she would be safe. Darien. He would help her, she was sure of it. He would comfort her and tell her everything would be alright. She didn't think to call anyone else. Nobody else would do, she needed her boyfriend.

She rounded the corner to his apartment building and stopped. His car was parked outside and he was getting out of the driver's side. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm her nerves. She was about to run and call his name when someone got out of the passenger's side. Not just anyone. A woman; and she looked familiar. _'What's going on?'_

She watched as her supposed to be boyfriend walked over to the strange woman and bent down to capture her lips in a kiss. Serena gasped and it felt like her heart was breaking and she had no control over it. _'This isn't real. It can't be. He wouldn't do this'_. She clutched her shirt closer to her to try and keep out the sudden cold that had enveloped her body.

Neither of them had noticed her yet, and she knew that if she stayed any longer, they would. But she couldn't move. It felt as if her whole world was crashing down around her and she was powerless to do anything about it. Suddenly images of all the times that he had to leave early on their dates flashed through her head and she instantly knew that this was why he left. _'What an idiot'_, she kept thinking to herself.

She didn't know how long she stood there watching them, but it felt like hours. In reality it was only a couple of minutes and by now Darien and his mystery woman were walking hand in hand towards the entrance of the building. She continued to stare at them while trying to get her feet to move.

As if she felt she was being watched, the woman suddenly turned her head and Serena gasped.

Raye!

Their eyes locked for a few seconds before Serena ripped her gaze away and ran. She ran until she couldn't breathe anymore. Her lungs were burning and her legs were aching. She had let her shirt go sometime during the run and her upper body was exposed to reveal the bruises forming on her skin. She felt her knees give out and collapsed on the sidewalk, taking in huge breaths. How could this have happened? Was she really that much of a idiot that she didn't realise?

She wondered if Raye had told Darien that she had seen them yet. Probably, Raye never could keep her mouth shut! She thought. She realised that her breathing was returning to normal but noticed that the tears were still flowing down her cheeks. Serena brought her head up to look around to find out where she was.

Serena took her cell phone out of the back pocket of her jeans and dialed a number. She put it towards her ear and waited for someone to answer. She was just about to hang up when someone picked up the other end. "Hello."

She was so relieved at hearing the other, familiar voice that she started to cry again.

"Hello, Serena? What's wrong?" Said the panicked voice. She knew that she was making him worry, but she couldn't stop herself from crying.

She continued to cry for a little bit longer and when she finally calmed down, whispered, "Matt, can you come and get me please?" She wanted this nightmare to end. More than anything, Serena wanted to be back where she belonged.

SMSMSMSMSMSM

Half an hour later, Matt picked Serena out of the passenger side of his car and carried her towards the large mansion. The porch and the living room lights were still on. Their parents were away for the weekend and Matt had some of his friends over. She knew that they were all still in there, but she didn't mind, they were like brothers to her; although she did have a crush on one of them.

When they reached the front door, it swung open to reveal three worried faces. Serena hid her face in her brother's shoulder, not wanting to answer any of the questions that they were throwing at her. Matt silenced them all with a wave of his hand and carried her in the direction of her room. He placed her down on her bed, kissed her forehead and walked out the room. She knew that he wanted to know what had happened to her, but she just couldn't face telling him yet. She knew exactly what his reaction was going to be and she wanted to be prepared.

She laid there staring at the ceiling, thinking about everything. Why didn't she see the signs? How could she have been so foolish? At the beginning she just thought that he was busy and couldn't help that he had to leave. As the weeks went by, she started to get a bit paranoid. She always went to talk to Raye about it, and now she finally understood. She was just trying to cover up the affair. They were supposed to be friends, how could she do this to her?

As she was contemplating why Raye and Darien would do this to her, she heard her bedroom door opening. She thought it was Matt coming in to check on her so she didn't bother to look. She could hear the footsteps getting closer to the bed and rolled onto her side. She gasped. It wasn't Matt. It was Jay. She had fancied him for as long as she could remember. The guys were all like brothers to her, but her relationship with Jay was different. They had had a little fling a while back, without her brother knowing. He would always defend her, yet he would tease her at the same time. It wasn't the harsh teasing, but almost as if he was flirting with her. He was like her best friend. She told him everything and he always seemed to understand what was going on with her. She had told him about her insecurities with Darien and asked him what he thought. He just shrugged his shoulders and gave her a hug. She should have taken that as a sign.

Jay bent down next to her bed and they stared at each other for what seemed like forever. Suddenly his hand shot out and wiped away the tears that she didn't realise were flowing down her cheeks. A small smile played on his lips. "Are you going to tell me what happened?"

Serena sighed again and moved over on her king-sized bed, patting the space beside her. He stood up and snuggled under the covers with her. "He was cheating on me…" She whispered and paused. "…with Raye."

He moved his arm to place it around her should and pulled her closer. "You're better off without him anyway." He told her softly. He knew what was going on the moment she told him her fears, but she needed to come to her senses on her own. Jay didn't want to see her get hurt, but it was the way it had to be.

She 'hmphed'. "I should have known that after I slept with him, something like this would have happened." She said in a sarcastic tone. She could tell that he was angry; she didn't have to look at him to know that. The second that sentence had left her lips his hold on her tightened. She felt him place a kiss to her temple and the room was bathed in silence. They both fell asleep wrapped up in each others arms, without a care in the world.

SMSMSMSMSMSM

The next day, Serena was sitting at the kitchen counter with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands, when the others all piled into the room. Jay immediately took the seat next to her and she smiled at him. The others slowly approached the counter and sat down facing her. She knew what they wanted. Serena felt someone squeeze her thigh and without looking knew who it was. She appreciated the gesture and started to recount the events of the night before.

Serena watched all of their facial expressions carefully, especially her brother's. She knew he was going to be angry. He had never really liked Darien that much anyway, or the girls. Matt knew the way that they treated her and it baffled him as to why she was still friends with them. She sometimes thought about that herself. They treated her like shit sometimes and she had never said a word about it. The guys and Andrew had tried to talk to her about it, but she shrugged it off. If only she had listened to them.

"I want to leave." She said after she had finished what she was saying. She looked to Matt hoping that he would allow her to do that and transfer to a different school and get on with her life. She needed to get away. Even though they had parents, it was Matt that took care of her. Serena loved her parents very much, but they weren't in the country that often and so it was he who made all the decisions concerning her.

Matt stared at her for a long time. They were looking into each others eyes trying to determine what the other was thinking. Matt's face, however, was blank. After a couple of minutes, he finally replied. "Okay, you can come back with us." He told her and relief washed over her. She nodded and got up from her seat and hugged her brother tightly before walking out of the house.

SMSMSMSMSMSM

"Where the hell is she?" Mina whispered to herself. Serena was supposed to be meeting them in the arcade. They did this every Saturday and even though she was almost always late, Mina knew that Serena wouldn't want to be late today. Amy had phoned them all to tell them to be there early because there was something important that she wanted to tell them all at the same time. Serena knew that it was important that she be here and wouldn't have intentionally flaked out on them.

"Can't she ever show up on time, I mean, this was important!" Amy all but yelled at them. Her eyes showed her anger at her supposed to be friend. Sometimes she could be so selfish, she thought.

"She is so irresponsible!" Lita said. She was furious and her thoughts were running along the same lines as the other girls.

None of them seemed to notice that Raye wasn't saying anything. Normally, she was the first one to start this type of conversation. She was always looking down on Serena, telling everyone about her faults and sometimes genuinely insulting her. Serena normally waved them off, taking them as a joke, but sometimes Raye did go too far. The conversation carried on for another ten minutes before any of them said anything to Raye.

"You're awfully quiet Raye." Amy said. That wasn't like her.

"I just don't feel like talking." She whispered back. She was feeling incredibly guilty about what Serena had witnessed last night and told no-one, not even Darien. She knew that he would run off and look for her. The truth was that she was jealous of Serena. She had everything; brains, looks, personality and the hot boyfriend. Serena had everyone she met eating out of the palm of her hand, even if she didn't know it.

"Are you okay?" Lita asked her. She had never seen Raye like this before; she was always so confident and sure of herself.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just thinking about some stuff." She said and looked down to the tabletop. How could she tell them about what she had done? She knew Serena wouldn't show up today, but she couldn't tell the others how she knew, they would hate her for doing such a thing to their friend.

Raye was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of the arcade door. She looked towards the entrance and gasped. The others hearing this looked in the same direction. Serena had just walked through the door as if nothing was wrong. She didn't even acknowledge their presence. She headed straight for the counter and started talking to Andrew.

SMSMSMSMSMSM

It had been about an hour ago that Serena had left the house. She needed to gather her thoughts before she saw anyone she knew. The first person she had to go to was Andrew. Se had known him since she was in diapers. Their families were very close and he was like another brother to her. Serena knew that when she told him about what Darien had done, he would be furious. She would need to ell him as carefully as she could because she didn't want to break up his and Darien's friendship. Even though she hated him at the moment, there was no need for Darien to lose a friend.

Serena walked into the arcade, noticing Andrew at the counter straight away. She walked towards him with a smile on her face; she didn't know how long it would be there for though!

"Hey Drew, how are you today?" She asked him trying to sound confident, however, she knew he would see right through it.

"I'm fine thanks." Andrew said slowly. "Are you okay?"

"Not really. I need to talk to you. In private."

Andrew looked at her for a while but before he could answer her, they were interrupted.

SMSMSMSMSMSM

Lita was fuming. How could she not know they were there? She was supposed to be meeting them. She stood up from her seat and stomped all the way to the counter. She grabbed Serena's arm and turned her around so that they were face to face. "What the hell's your problem, you were supposed to be here an hour ago?" She yelled at her.

Serena's face scrunched up in confusion and then realisation hit her. Amy wanted to tell them something, she had completely forgotten. She had been so caught up in her own problems that she had totally forgotten about it. She was such a bad friend. "Oh my god! I completely forgot I'm so sorry. I had some problems that I had to take care of." She looked to Raye while saying this; however, Raye was avoiding all eye contact.

"It's always about you isn't it Serena! For once couldn't you at least think about someone else?" Amy screamed at her, after coming to stand next to Lita. The whole arcade went silent and turned to look the five girls. "Just for once, couldn't you have done something for me?"

Serena looked down at her hands. She felt incredible guilty but it was obvious that Raye hadn't told them. "Look Amy, I'm sorry okay. I haven't exactly had the best weekend-" She never got to finish her sentence because Lita had cut her off.

"That's what we're talking about, it's always about you Serena. You never even thought about anyone else. We're supposed to be you're friends!"

Mina stood away from the girls and looked at Serena. She could tell that something was wrong and desperately wanted to know what. There was no way Serena would miss today on purpose and Mina wondered what would make her do it. She had seen the change in he best friend as soon as she walked in the arcade. It had been obvious that she had forgotten all about them because she didn't even look their way. She quickly looked at Andrew and their eyes locked briefly. He was thinking the same as her.

Darien had walked into the arcade and stood with Andrew, staring at them in shock. He knew that the girls had had their problems over the two years that they had known each other, but he had never thought it would come to this. Andrew, however, knew that there was something seriously wrong with Serena. He sot a look to Mina and knew that she thought the same thing. During their conversation before they were interrupted by Lita, he had sensed a change in her and this confirmed it. Serena's voice cut him off from his thoughts.

"Look, you know nothing about what I've been through okay. I said I was sorry what more do you want from me? I don't have to put up with this anyway!" She yelled and walked out of the arcade, not once looking back at them.

SMSMSMSMSMSM

When she got home, she threw herself onto her bed and stared at the ceiling. Why hadn't Raye told them? She had hoped that she would be able to tell her friends goodbye and that she was leaving the next day, but after that little display, she doubted that they were really her friends. Her thoughts were cut off when her brother walked into the room.

"We're leaving at noon tomorrow. I called Mom and she said that it was okay, but she really wanted to talk to you. Are you sure this is what you want to do?" He asked her just to make sure. He knew what the answer was going to be and he was more that willing to take her away from this place. Life generally hadn't treated her fairly.

Serena thought for a second and nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm sure. There's nothing here for me anymore."

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_Thanks for reading! I will thry and get the next chapter out soon! Please Review!_


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